Thomas Breen Photo
Campbell and Alston contracts approved through 2022.
The Board of Alders Monday night approved contract renewals for the city’s police and fire chiefs, giving both men another chance to continue to transform their departments and rein in their overtime budgets.
During the board’s regular bi-monthly meeting at City Hall, alders voted unanimously to approve the contract renewals for Fire Chief John Alston, Jr. and Police Chief Anthony Campbell. The new contracts for both public safety department heads extend retroactively from Feb. 1, 2018, through Jan. 31, 2022.
Chiefs Alston and Campbell are both nearing the two-year mark into their tenures at the helm of their respective departments. Alston took over as fire chief in October 2016 after serving 31 years in the Jersey City, N.J. fire department. Campbell, a former assistant chief who has served in the New Haven Police Department for two decades, took over as the city’s police chief in July 2016.
Alston’s salary is $158,500. His contracting includes additional benefits including a $2,000 monthly housing stipend, which was good for his entire first term and the first six months of a second term if reappointed. Campbell’s salary is $162,000.
Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriguez, who chairs the Aldermanic Affairs Committee, asked her colleagues to pass both contracts by unanimous consent Monday evening, dispensing with the usual flow of legislation, which could have taken another two months. (Read here about the committee’s review of both chief’s contract renewals.)
Downtown Alder Abigail Roth stood to speak in favor of the approval of the contracts by unanimous consent Monday. She said that both chiefs, on the whole, had done excellent jobs to date. But she also started to add to the record that a critical part of doing their jobs going forward is to operate within their budgets.
She was interrupted by Board President Tyisha Walker-Meyers, who laid down some parliamentary procedure.
“Excuse me,” Walker-Meyers said. “Can we keep the comments germane to the reappointment?”
“I support the reappointment,” Roth said. “I’m not opposing it but …”
“We’re not going to talk about that right now,” Walker-Meyers admonished. “We already did that part. This is not a budget discussion. The discussion is whether the chiefs should be reappointed by unanimous consent or not.”
By all means - let's not talk about a $15 million budget deficit - or how both of these incompetent chiefs spending millions of dollars over budget have fueled the current crisis. Let's just renew and keep going. Way to go madam presidente - all is good. Wrong.
And for the record - standing and commenting on her support for approval - should never be thwarted by a BS shut down of free speech by the Tyisha Walker-Meyers. If I'd been Ald. Roth - I would have told Walker-Myers I withdraw my support.
And just to be clear - Walker-Myers is as much responsible for rising rents, property taxes and the current $15,000,000 deficit as her BFF Mayor Toni Harp. It's a disgrace.